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MSNBC: Word Processing for Everyone?

"That's because AbiWord is cross-platform, open software. It is
copyrighted and available for use under the terms of the GNU
General Public License (GPL). In short, you can use it, plus if you
can help writing portions of the program or can help with fixing
some of the inevitable software bugs you're encouraged to do so and
share it with everyone else. That's what AbiWord is all about.

"AbiWord began during the Internet IPO craze. It was hoped that
an open software office suite might help SourceGear Corporation
become a player in the Linux/Open Source world and would produce a
lucrative ITP. That didn't happen. So SourceGear stopped working on
the project and released the source code. Since then more than 200
people have worked on the open word processor over the years. It's
now down to a core of nearly two dozen, finally bringing the
product to fruition.

"From the beginning, AbiWord targeted Microsoft Word as its
goal--not trying to match the popular software feature for feature,
but to create a program that equaled the look and feel of Word.
Plus, they wanted to bring that look and feel to a number of
different platforms..."